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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

I don't think I have worn this top in any of my outfit posts before. I purchased this on a trip to various consignment stores that Jules and I went on this past summer. On this trip we headed towards the San Francisco Bay area. We shopped in San Jose and Fremont mostly. I wish I could remember where exactly I purchased this particular top, but alas, I do not remember. What I do remember is that most of the consignment stores that we went to on that trip were great!

We recently went to the Los Angeles area and went to some consignment shops in Long Beach. Wow what a tremendous difference between the northern and southern portions of this state. We found nothing good at all at any of the 7 or 8 stores we went into. Most of the stores we went into were on 4th street in Long Beach and they were all vintage consignment stores. This really meant, vintage, not necessarily consignment, in terms of designer consignment; more like my grandmother died, and while cleaning out her house I discovered a closet full of her old clothes and thought I would try and sell them.

Now if you have not ever been to Long Beach, Ca. then maybe you don't know of the large click of retro folks that reside around LB. Many of the guys and gals around LB enjoy dressing daily in 50's outfits. They can be super cute, when done well. Cute dresses, cute hair, cute style. But not for me. So Jules and I purchased nothing. : ( Boo for us!

I wanted to add another picture of this outfit, as this one shows the asymmetric cut to the bottom of the shirt and I just love that little detail. Oh and this picture shows how hippy this skirt makes me appear. The skirt is a lightly stretchy pencil skirt and with it squeezing in at my knees it really helps to accentuate what curves I actually do have. I Love It!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Wow surprise surprise, I am in almost all Guess clothes again. Doing these outfit posts and posting up the brand of clothing that I am wearing really makes me aware of what I am wearing and I can clearly see that I need to branch out in my purchasing of clothes. I tend to go back to the same places that I have successfully found nice clothes in the past. I need to be more adventurous in my shopping!

Anyways, I really like this top. I think it is really good for those of us who are small hipped. It has the nice frilly flare at the bottom of it and helps to give the illusion of nice sized hips. I also like the 3/4 sleeve and the small V at the neckline. The small V also works quite well to help diminish the appearance of larger shoulders. I have heard that wearing larger breast form will make your shoulders appear smaller, but I prefer to use my clothes to make my body dimensions better. In the past I have used larger breast forms but I find that they tend to attract attention more so than making my shape look better.

Also, recently on another blog someone wrote that while wearing jeans it is a must to tuck. While I admit that with certain occasions I will tuck, but most times I do not. It is far too uncomfortable to be that way for an entire day of driving, and walking, and shopping, and general living. Generally I wear clothes that do not necessitate tucking. So, I would have to disagree with whomever it was that I was reading at the time who said with jeans you MUST tuck.

Today this outfit was worn for shopping at Costco. I never told you of the funny experience I had the last time I went to Costco. It is a must share, but I will have to leave that for another time!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

1 - That I could not dress from head to toe as a woman.2 - That I could not go in public dressed as a woman.3 - That my friends and family would ostracize me if I told them that I dress as a woman.4 - That everyone would know that I am a cross dresser if I: paint my nails, pierce my ears, wear female jewelry, wear female clothes.5 - If I show my face on my blog my world will come crashing down.

A little further explanation about these things:
1 - I suppose some part of me felt that I could not do this. But guess what? I can and further more I think I do it pretty well. Oh but FYI - it took me about 5-10 years of partial dressing before I allowed myself to do it from head to toe. One thing that stopped me - I would have to shave my goatee, which I justified for years that I could not do because then I would too young. I look back now and think 'gawd I used ridiculous excuses.'

2 - Another thing that took me years to get over. Sure I could dress as a woman at home, but there is no way I could go out in public. I thought people would laugh and point and circle around me taunting me like I was a small child on an school playground. And those would be the small things that people would do, the big things included beating me to death because they were so offended by my audacious behavior. Well sorry brain, yet again you were wrong.

3 - I thought my wife would leave me; she hasn't. I thought my sister would not want to speak to me; we are closer than ever. I thought my friends would think I was a freak; some great people told me this past Saturday how I have made their marriage better. Hmm, yet again I was wrong. How weird.

4 - Let me clarify - I thought everyone would know I was a cross dresser if I did those things while dressed primarily as a male. Wouldn't you know it, I was wrong, wrong, wrong! I am still surprised by this one. Apparently after discussing it with many people none of those things tipped people off to the truth of my behavior. Wanna know what did? Yup something did tip people off to me being a cross dresser before I told them. Okay here goes - They saw the female underwear I was wearing at some point when the back of my shirt rode up. They had to see me wearing something undeniably female before they would allow themselves to think of me as a cross dresser. And I never worried about that one bit. Everything else I did worry about, I never needed to as I was quite wrong.

5 - Well, it has not been that long since I decided to do this and admittedly I am still worried about it, but so far, so good. My world has not ended yet and further more I am not really sure how it could ever cause my world to come crashing down. Oh I know there are a lot of scenarios that my mind can come up with as to how exactly this will ruin me, but I know that 90-100% of what I worry about is a bunch of BS.

I love proving my worry wrong. How about you? Have you worried about things that have never come true?

Monday, February 4, 2013

I saw a pin on pinterest - which can be viewed here. I thought I would try it and see what my results were. Here is documentation of my experiment.

The idea is simple enough, paint your nails with a base coat of black, layer colors on top of that, and then use a paint brush dipped in acetone to remove portions of the colors. I changed the original pin a little. I did not paint the whole nail with the colors, I just painted the ends of them as I wanted the tops of the nails to remain straight black. Also I don't concern myself with painting within the lines of my nails as I tend to shower after my nails are dry and I will remove the parts that slopped around on my skin.

The supplies I decided to use:

My nails before I started:

After a couple of coats of black:

After a coat of the greenish color: (have I ever mentioned that I am color blind?)

After a coat of white:

After a coat of blue:

And now for the all important - after brushing them with a paintbrush dipped in acetone:

After a clear coat:

After I have showered and cleaned them up a bit:

Final analysis -

Pros - I kind of like the look
- It was relatively easy (unlike water marbling)
- My wife really likes the look

Cons - It was time consuming
- The nails are inconsistently colored
- It was kind of hard to control the color removal with an acetone dipped paintbrush

I think I could get better with practice. Overall I like it enough to try it again. What do you think?